37, 3RD AVE, PO Box 820 BURNS LAKE, BC VOJ 1E0 June 29, 2015 Village of Telkwa, P.O. Box 220, Telkwa, B.C. VOJ 2X0 Dear Mayor Repen and Telkwa Council Members, RE: lndustrial Legacy Project MMDR Last year, the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako identified pursuing legacy CGUNCW. funding as one of its priorities. Throughout 2014 and early 2015, the RDBNand its consultant, Mr. Fred Banham, worked with municipal staff to move this important initiative forward by development of a “Bu|kley-Nechako Industrial Benefit Position Paper”. The document identifies community needs, priorities, funding options and the legacy “ask”. The “draft”Position Paper was endorsed by the Regional District of Bulk|ey— Nechako Board of Directors at its June 24”‘,2015 meeting to be fon/varded to all Mayors and Councils for review, input and approval. A copy of the document is attached hereto. Upon approval by member municipalities, the Regional District of Bulk|ey— Nechako, through it’s Resource Legacy Committee, (Committee of the Whole), willdevelop a strategy to move the initiative forward with industry and the Province. I look fonNard to your input and approval of this important initiative. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Regional District office. Yours truly, BillMill r, Chair |NQU|R|[email protected] MUNICIPALITIES: ELECTORAL AREAS: WWW.RDBN.BC.CA SMITHERS FORT ST. JAMES A - SMITHERS RURAL E - FRANcoIs/OoTsALAKERURAL VANDERHOOF FRASER LAKE B - BURNS LAKE RURAL F - VANDERHOOFRURAL PH: 250-692-3 I 95 HOUSTON TELKWA C ~ FORT ST. JAMEs RURAL G » HOUSTON RURAL FX: 250-692-3305 BURNS LAKE GRANISLE D - FRASER LAKE RURAL TF2 800-320-3339 RevisedWorking DraftJanuary 28, 2015 ’ BULTKLEYT-'NECHAKOI"NDUESTRIAL”BENEEIT POSITIONPAPER 1 BACKGROUND The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (RDBN)is home to eight municipalities, seven electoral rural areas and thirteen distinct First Nation communities. RDBNis centrally located in the province between Prince George and Prince Rupert. The RDBNhas a connected transportation and communication network, hosting active forestry, mining, agriculture, and tourism industries. The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako is 77,821 square kilometers in size and hosts a population of 39,208 which includes the incorporated municipalities of Smithers (5,404 pop.), Vanderhoof (4,480 pop.), Houston (3,147 pop.), Burns Lake (2,385 pop.), Fort St. James (1,691 pop.), Fraser Lake (1,167 pop.), Telkwa (1,350 pop.), Granisle (303 pop.) and the unincorporated electoral areas ‘A’—SmithersRural(5,396 — — pop.), ‘B’ Burns LakeRural (2,117 pop.), ‘C’ Fort St. James Rural (2,779 pop.), ‘D’— Fraser Lake Rural — (2,155 pop.), ‘E’ — Francois/OotsaLake Rural (1,641 pop.), ‘F’ Vanderhoof Rural (4,044 pop.), and ‘G’— Houston Rural (1,149 pop.). The region is rich in undeveloped resources and is centrally located within the Province of BC where {' transportation infrastructure moves goods and resourcestotradiegdestinationsaround the world. Peace River glonsl Disirlcl Kiiimat-Sllklne Regional Dlslrlct Regional Dlstncl of I Fraser Fort/_GHaorge Ceriboo Regional Dlslrici Icenlralcoasll RDEN5 W“ 4 Regional District ‘ E aw ' 0 25 50 2 MunicipalBoundary jig Km ' As at July a,:oo& mama by: RDBN BULKLEYNECHAKOINDUSTRIALBENEFITPOSITIONPAPER Theba¢k99ne otthe BUl“€¥'N??h3k9.eCPn9FnYb bytu anqund_xhe fotestlndU§tnbJNhH§.egdcuRure accounts for the largest amount of fee simple lands. 373,405 ha of land is designated for agriculture uses under the Agriculture Land Reserve (ALR).Economic promise in the region is being realizedthrough mining. The region hosts three significant mine projects producing gold, silver,copper and molybdenum although low molybdenum prices have caused one to shut down pending improvement in molybdenum prices. As well,the region supports mining projects in the neighboring regions with mining supplies, employees and expertise. Highway 16, ’the Yellowhead’,is the main road transportation linkto Prince Rupert's deep sea ports and world markets. In addition, the Canadian National Railroad(CNR),operates the main rail link moving goods to and from world markets across North America directly across the Regional Districtof Bulkley-Nechako. Broadband internet and cell phone coverage is decent in the municipalities, but spotty to poor in the rural areas. 2 ISSUE New Provincial economic activity is bringing development opportunities to the Bulkley-Nechakoregion. These include mining opportunities as well as pipeline construction to supply natural gas to BC’snew liquefied natural gas (LNG)industry and bitumen to supply world markets with oil from Alberta. These projects collectively are going to contribute significantlyto the economy of BritishColumbia by providing investment, jobs and transportation linksfrom North America to the world. I l. The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, as a host to this industrial activity needs to be in a position to support this activity without burdening the existing infrastructure and services of the region. The Regional District of Bulkley-Nechakoand its member municipalities want to remain competitive and current with supplying and maintaining basic services to its residents and new industrial opportunities. in order to achieve this, the region needs access to financial support from industry and the Province to ensure that the services needed to support the industrial development are in place as they are needed. Local government does not have direct access to resource royalties or international trade taxation so investment in local communities by those that do have access is critical. industry is authorized to operate by the Province and in many instances operates outside local property taxingjurisdiction resulting in little or no direct investment in local infrastructure and services even though industry and the people benefiting from industry use those services. The issue is simple, the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako is hosting industrial activity without sustainable investment in our communities. 3 DEMANDFORLOCALSERVICES Localgovernment's prime responsibility is to provide local services to its residents and businesses.These services can be categorized as ’Primary Services’, ’Secondary Services’, and ’Communityor SocialServices’. These services make ‘communities’ and are critical to the foundation of community living and development. The greater the number of services and quality of services, the stronger and more sustainable the local community is to support industrial diversificationand flow of goods to world markets. BULKLEYNECHAKOINDUSTRIALBENEFITPOSITIONPAPER Examples of LocalGovernment Services: Primary Services jPSj Secondary Services jSS| Communitylsocial Services jcsj Municipal Roads Recreation Facilities Recreation Programs Fire Protection (community/senior halls,ice Bylaw Enforcement Water—production arenas, play fields) Dog Control Water — distribution Parks/Cemeteries Business Licensing Sewer —treatment Land Use Planning BuildingInspection Sewer — collection Municipal Garbage collection Seniors Housing Waste Management Show removal AffordableHousing Policing Sidewalks Governance Economic Development Solid Waste Disposal Tourism/Museums Libraries Transit Airports A in the Bulkley—Nechakoregion, local government services are shared amongst the Regional District and the eight member municipalities. Collectively, there is an infrastructure and community need for $323 millionto address 55 priority projects. Summary Overview of Bulkley—NechakoRegion infrastructure [ Community Needs: PRIORITY _ PRIMARY SECONDARY COMMUNITY SERVICES(PS) SERVICES(SS) j SERVICES(CS) — - 30 High — Priority Projects 27 PS Projects 3 SS Projects 0 - CS Projects Costing $244.35 Million Costing $225.35M Costing $19M Costing 50 Average cost per project $8.2 Million i~ 22 --Medium Priority Projects 10 PS Projects 10 vs SS Projects 2 - CS Projects Costing $69.3 Million Costing S31.4M Costing $32.9M Costing $5M Average cost per project $3.2 Million — — 7 3 Low Priority Project 2 PSProjects 1- SS Project O — CS Projects Costing $9.5 Million Costing $7M Costing $2.5M Costing S0 Average cost per project $3.2 Million — - - 55 Priority Projects 39 PS Projects 14 SS Projects I 2 — CS Projects Costing $323.15 Million Costing $263.75 Costing $54.4 Costing $5 Million Million Million Who pays for community infrastructure and the day to day operation of this infrastructure? The costs are managed and financed by local government, but the prime investor in local infrastructure and operations is the local tax payer. Residents, small business, large business, industry all occupyspace and local government is tasked with the responsibility of delivering the services each demand in a communal and equitable way. In the Bulkley—Nechakoregion, local government service operations are paid as follows: 0 51.5% of localgovernment operations funding comes from property tax; 0 15.36% of localgovernment operations funding comes from user fees; 0 16.56% of local government operations funding comes from grants from other government sources; 0 15.98% of local government operations funding comes from other sources; 0 0.6% of local government operations funding comes from partnership funding. BULKLEYNECHAKOINDUSTRIALBENEFITPOSITIONPAPER intheBulkley-Necha_koregio_n,capital investmentin localgovernment infrastr_uc_tu,re_,i§_asfollows: 0 16% of local government capital funding from groperty tax; 0 31% of local government capital funding from grants from other government sources; 0 45% of local government capital funding from other